Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of Yahweh and their faith in Yeshua. (Revelation 14:12)
Apologetics are messages related to the basics of Christianity as practiced by the first century Christians.
We’re off to the Feast of Tabernacles! Here’s a little primer for those who’ve never heard of it or why Christians would even do such a thing! And here’s the link to the message I refer to in this video. https://firstcenturychristianity.net/paganism-in-christianity/
We're off to the Feast of Tabernacles! Here's a little primer for those who've never heard of it or why #Christians would even do such a thing! pic.twitter.com/p8DWueKA96
— Chris (@Messianic73) September 28, 2023
If you knew there was something you were supposed to do for God, would you do it?
Imagine being at the crucifixion. Imagine being one of the disciples and witnessing the greatest Teacher of all time, the One to restore Israel, being murdered innocently by the overwhelming Roman Empire. Imagine watching your own countrymen defy their own laws to get Him crucified. Imagine hearing the cheers and jeers while watching. How helpless would you feel?
Did you know there is an annual holiday for being helpless that is part of the prophecy for the Messiah? Did you know that we’re supposed to be keeping this holiday?
When considerable time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous, since even the fast was already over, Paul started admonishing them, saying to them, “Men, I perceive that the voyage will certainly be with damage and great loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.” (Act 27:9-10)
The author of Acts, whom we believe to be Luke, referenced the change of seasons by using the Day of Atonement. The seas were changing because the planet was entering fall and that’s when seas got rough over there. Acts 27 is about Paul’s journey to Rome which occurred about 60 AD and was then recorded later. This casual reference three decades after Yeshua’s death and resurrection proves the Apostles continued to observe this day and intended for all who read Acts to be doing the same. This day starts at sunset, September 24th and ends Monday, September 25th at sunset this year. If you look outside here in the Kansas City Metro, you can see the seasons changing and the corn being harvested. Right on time.
One can fast for the faith pretty much whenever. But once a year, we are all supposed to fast. In reality, it’s deeper than that. It’s a day to humble our souls and fasting is part of that humbling. There are many ways to think about it, but it’s a day when we refuse food and water for 24 whole hours, from sunset to sunset, and effectively show how helpless we are. We need God to provide food and water for us to survive. We need Him to provide air to breathe as well. We are incapable of sustaining ourselves at all, let alone save ourselves from he wrath to come.
Many people, in fact almost all of Christianity, look at the faith of the Old Testament as a works based salvation. This day dispels that myth completely. This day shows that we literally must do nothing to be saved. Remember that helplessness I mentioned above? We are commanded to do exactly nothing so that someone else can atone for our sins. This, brothers and sisters, is from the Torah, the Old Testament, from long before Yeshua. Yeshua’s death shows us a fuller meaning of this day.
The Day of Atonement aka Yom Kippur aka the fast is also supremely impactful because everyone must do exactly the same nothing at the same time. This shows how we are all sinners and have fallen short of the glory. It’s a leveling of the playing field, showing that rich or poor, royalty or commoner, we all must fast and humble our souls or be removed from the Kingdom of God.
Everyone does the same humbling but the High Priest had work to do in temple days. The High Priest had to do extra purification work and then offer sacrifices for himself and then for the people. The book of Hebrews speaks of this in great detail and shows how Yeshua’s sacrifice fulfills Yom Kippur as well as Passover. We have a High Priest that willingly died sinless in order to mediate between us and Yahweh. Observing the fast shows our appreciation for that sacrifice.
Humbling ourselves also includes calling to mind our sins and shortcomings and repenting. The Day of Atonement was specifically to cleanse Israel of sins year by year. While Yeshua’s sacrifice accomplished this task once for all time, looking forward and looking backward, we still need to honor the day and call to mind our sins, as is evidenced by the verse on the screen. Judaism has a liturgy on Yom Kippur publicly confessing everything one can think of. Please do not wait for Yom Kippur to confess your sins. Prepare over these next few days. Reflect on your past year, or, if this is your first time, your entire life. Realize when you have wronged others and sinned against Yahweh. One sin we in the west don’t realize is idolatry, which is alive and well but masked behind a Christian veil. I will speak of this at length on Shabbat this week. Remember, the Torah tells us what sin is, so we study the Torah to live properly and understand where we have fallen short.
Yom Kippur is a day for the forgiveness of sins committed in ignorance as well. This is a remarkable blessing because as we learn the Bible, we continually learn sins we didn’t know of before. For teachers, we also sin when we teach incorrectly. Before we know things fully, we can often steer people wrong. This is very bad, but those are sins committed in ignorance.
On this note, we all must remember to be humble throughout the year and to be teachable. When Yeshua came the first time, the folks who had the hardest time accepting Him were those who thought they had their doctrine figured out completely. He told us specifically to come to the Kingdom like children, innocent and ready to learn from our Master the way a child looks to His parents. The knowledge of the fast is very powerful and impactful, please receive this information like a child. Investigate and understand that if Yeshua could die for us, then we can surely go 24 hours without food and water, abstain from all work, and get together in His Name one day a year. Remember, the disciples were told Yeshua was going to die, watched it, heard Him cry out scripture on the cross, and didn’t understand it until He was resurrected and then explained it to them. The author of Hebrews was obviously an educated Jew who had to be able to learn new information, like how Yeshua is now the High Priest sitting at the right hand of God. These examples of some of the most blessed people in history being teachable is an example for us all. Being able to accept new information is difficult, especially when one was raised to believe things a particular way. So our example from the disciples turned apostles is that we must be strong in our faith, but not so strong that the Messiah or His Father cannot show us a fuller understanding.
I will close with the question again. Can you do this one thing? Can you humble yourself for 24 hours to show your love of Yahweh and Yeshua? Can you?
When Jesus told the scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees what the Greatest Commandment was, He was telling them a whole lot more than to just love God. Understanding His words hinge on understanding Moses and the entire Old Testament. This message explains the two greatest commandments in a way you’ve probably never heard before.
Thanks for coming to worship with us! We’re a unique bunch so you may be seeing new things. We pattern our worship off the first century church, which was a little different than you see in modern Christianity. The first difference to touch on is that we sometimes pronounce God’s Name, Yahweh, in our assembly. We also often pronounce Jesus’ Name in Hebrew as well, which is Yeshua. This is to show respect for Yahweh and Yeshua but does not preclude us from saying God and Jesus as well. The second difference I’m going to explain is the topic of this message, a prayer called the Shema. This prayer comes directly from the book of Deuteronomy. The word Shema is Hebrew for listen or hear. Oftentimes passages or books in Hebrew are called by their first word. The first words of the Shema are “Hear oh Israel…”, hence it’s called The Shema. So why would a Christian be concerned with a prayer from the Old Testament. Funny you should ask!
Slide 2 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, ” ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ This is the great and foremost commandment.” (Mat 22:36-38)
The words that are in all caps are that way because the bible I use does that when the NT quotes the OT. This is a very helpful hint to show that a whole lot of the NT is really verses from the OT. Jesus, who was Jewish, is saying a little bit more than just the words in caps comprise the greatest commandment. So let me explain.
The chapters and verses of the Bible were added over a thousand years after the close of scripture. We have always had them, so we take them for granted. When we quote something, we say “John 3:16” or “Isaiah 53”. In Jesus’ day, they had a different system for doing this. They also didn’t have Bibles everywhere like we do. Having a printed bible prior to Gutenberg’s press was out of reach for almost everyone. To learn the Bible, people went to synagogue to read the community Torah or hear it read. Starting hundreds of years before Yeshua’s earthly minister, from the return from Babylon, Jewish culture was founded each on man hearing the Torah weekly and many hearing and reading it to the point of memorizing it in synagogue school. The intent of this education was to prevent another captivity through education and a system of accountability: if everybody knows the Bible, then everybody can do the Bible and hold each other to account. They created synagogues, which are the ancestors to modern day churches, where the people would learn the scriptures by hearing them read every Shabbat and they would also send children to school there during the week. This created a culture where Jews, particularly those who were concerned with religion, would communicate to each other by citing verses almost as casually as we talk about professional football. Almost.
Without chapters and numbers, the way they cited passages was to just quote the leading verse, or part of a verse, of a passage. So when Jesus quoted these words from the Shema, He was reminding all the people present of the entire prayer. Let’s look at the verses:
Slide 3 “Hear, O Israel! YHVH is our God, YHVH is one! You shall love YVHV your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deu 6:4-9)
Yeshua, Jesus, tells us that Moses’ lead sentence here to love God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength, is the greatest commandment. But then Moses goes on to tell us how we love God. To love God, we need to keep His commandments in the foreground of our lives. We must teach them to our children so they learn to love and fear God. We must talk of them at every step of our day, from when we rise up to when we lie down. While we drive in our cars (or walk on the road if you prefer). Binding them as a sign on our wrists is colorful language telling us to do the commandments. Binding them as frontals on our foreheads means to make God the first thing we think of. Decorating our doorposts and our gates with His words is a reminder when we leave and when we return. Brothers and sisters, this is a recipe for success. Loving God in this lifetime to the extent of the Shema is a gateway to the olam ha ba, the world to come.
Slide 4 One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’ “The second is this, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”(Mar 12:28-31)
In this instance, Yeshua tells broadens it to the two greatest commandments. You’ll notice that the second commandment is in all caps as well, which means that one is also from the Old Testament. This time from the book of Leviticus.
Slide 5 “Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the LORD your God. You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another. You shall not swear falsely by My name, so as to profane the name of your God; I am the LORD. You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning. You shall not curse a deaf man, nor place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall revere your God; I am the LORD. You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly. You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people, and you are not to act against the life of your neighbor; I am the LORD. You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.” (Lev 19:9-18)
This puts some meat on the bone for how to love our neighbor, which is a question that comes up pretty often. If you’re not aware that Jesus is saying more than just “love your neighbor” through the method that they referenced scriptures back then, then it’s kind of up for interpretation. But now that we do know this is not a new commandment and loving your neighbor is defined, we can explore that.
The first part is to leave food in your field or vineyard for the needy at harvest time. This would allow for people to go out and enjoy the harvest that God provided with dignity. A field that wasn’t completely harvested would be the sign of a faithful farm owner who loved his neighbors. The harvest belongs to God, after all.
No stealing, no dealing falsely, and no lying to each other is another way to love our neighbors. This one doesn’t really need a lot of explanation. This develops and honest and open society which is a community of love.
No swearing falsely by the Name of God. Very important. This is why our nation swears politicians in with their hands on the Bible and why we get give sworn testimony in trials. It’s incredibly important when we invoke the Name of God to be as honest and forthright as possible because He knows the whole truth! Having this level of common respect among people is another way we love each other as ourselves because it creates a society of integrity.
The wages of a hired man not remaining overnight is expanded in other verses to mean a man who needed the money to feed his family and such. One who has the means to hire others needs to be cognizant of what it is like to need money and make sure he loves his neighbor, particularly one willing to work for his wages. Oscar de la hoya kept a food stamp in his wallet.
Treating people with disabilities properly is also key to loving our neighbors. Creating a society where people who need help getting around can have it readily shows a society that loves its neighbors. It means that people who are able stopped and realized others who are not need to be able to get around. The Tunnel to Towers Foundation building houses for wounded vets is a great example of this.
Impartially making judgments without respect to wealth or need is also crucial for a society. Each person needs to be judged the same, and the guilty should have the same penalties without respect to means. This commandment is why we have the lady with the blindfold holding the scales of justice. Loving our neighbor means to have fair and impartial rules governing society that are implemented equally.
We are not to slander one another. It goes without saying that this is the opposite of loving our neighbor.
We are not to take vengeance, hate our countrymen, or bear grudges in order to love our neighbor. Seems like such a novel idea, but wouldn’t society be a much better place if we did live like this?
Slide 6 “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (Joh 5:46-47)
Now you can see how rich these sentences really were. Yeshua was building on a system that was already in place, having been given by Yahweh 1500 years prior through Moses. He did not come to make something entirely new, but to clarify and expand on what they already had. In order for us to understand Jesus, we need to study Moses and all the Old Testament, understanding that we are blessed to join into the faith of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Yeshua. And when we study the faith from Genesis to Revelation, the words of the Messiah and the Apostles take one much more meaning. Shalom.
The truth about salvation and works.
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph 2:8-9)
This is the famous verse that believers use to show we can’t save ourselves. That’s completely true. We can’t save ourselves. Yahweh grants salvation to whomever He wishes. Paul writes the same thing in Romans 9:18, that Yahweh hardens whom He hardens and has mercy on who He has mercy.
The challenge comes when folks focus on this topic to the extreme position that negates works with respect to salvation. The idea is that because works can’t save, then one doesn’t need to do anything to obtain or maintain salvation. This is a ridiculous concept.
Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Yeshua the Messiah for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Act 2:37-38)
Repentance means what we all think it means, to be sorry for what you have done, acknowledge it, and decide to not do it again. Peter is talking to the very people who had Yeshua innocently executed. Murdering people will prevent you from being in the kingdom, therefore not murdering people is required for salvation. Repentance covers sins, therefore one must acknowledge sins and repent of them to be saved. What are sins, pray tell?
Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. (1Jn 3:4-6)
Read more in the pdf below but this is best experienced through the media options.
The truth about #salvation and works! pic.twitter.com/K0R5ycuQ1f
— Chris (@Messianic73) September 3, 2023
What signs should really warn us of the return of the Messiah and the end of the age? Can mankind reverse the decline we are on and how would that be achieved? Is it still possible to repent and join the family of God? Click here to find out!
The doctrines necessary for salvation that are only found in the New Testament.
Audio only below
We spend a lot of time in our walk explaining how the Old Testament is more than relevant to our faith and worship, it’s the foundation. We know that salvation requires both the faith of Yeshua and keeping the Torah and that this was what the faith looked like until the second century AD. So this is what we talk about, because it’s what sets us apart from the rest of the believers in Yeshua. Bluntly, we spend most of our time pointing out how much of the Old Testament continues to be important and that the first century believers really didn’t change how or when they worshiped all that much.
Today we’re taking a different track. I’m going to talk about what is actually new in the New Testament. Today is day 49 in the count for Shavuot. Tomorrow is Shavuot, which is the beginning of something new. Folks who believe like us often minimize or even refute the new things in the New Testament, mainly to discredit the Sunday worshipers. They try to say there is nothing new in the New Testament at all. This is because our brothers and sisters in the Sunday churches have misused the scriptures to create a religion that is not scriptural. Because of the misuse, some go too far in refuting bad doctrine and come up with some new bad doctrine of their own. So let’s get started and take a look at some key doctrines that are indeed unique to the New Testament.
Slide 2 John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. (Mar 1:4-5)
This is kind of shocking. John the Baptist was preaching something entirely new, that one could be forgiven through immersion. This is not to be found in the Torah. The immersion in the Torah was after a period of uncleanness, one would wash with water to become both literally and figuratively clean. That became a doctrine called mikvah. The word mikvah in this usage means a collection of water in its literal sense. In another usage, it can mean hope or abiding. So context is key. But in the context of a gathering of water, mikvah became a doctrine. That doctrine turned into pools of water that were managed by Rabbis where people would complete the cleansing cycles listed in Torah and some others. These pools have been useful in archeology to finding ancient synagogues. It’s wonderful to see evidence of people keeping Torah all throughout the known world in history, but the mikveh pools they were never intended or considered to be forgiveness baths.
While washing with water is a mitzvot, a commandment, and the mikvah a doctrine that sprung up from that is kind of cool, washing with water to be forgiven sins was totally new. And John was also circumventing the Rabbinic guardians of the pools. He was going straight into the water and preaching that people publicly confess their sins and be immersed for forgiveness. This a totally new to the NT and, interestingly enough, the people were rather accepting of the practice.
Slide 3 Now when all the people were baptized, Yeshua was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Ruach ha Kodesh descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” (Luk 3:21-22)
There are two things here that are new to the New Testament. The first is the Ruach descending on someone like a dove.
Slide 4 Then YHVH came down in the cloud and spoke to him; and He took of the Spirit who was upon him and placed it upon the seventy elders. And when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do it again. But two men had remained in the camp; the name of one was Eldad and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them (now they were among those who had been registered, but had not gone out to the tent), and they prophesied in the camp. So a young man ran and told Moses and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” Then Joshua the son of Nun, the attendant of Moses from his youth, said, “Moses, my lord, restrain them.” But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all YHVH’s people were prophets, that YHVH would put His Ruach upon them!” (Num 11:25-29)
The Ruach came off Moses to the 70 elders in the wilderness. And it was visible and known. But what happened with Yeshua was something very new and very visible. His anointing came directly from Yahweh and in public. The Ruach came down visibly and then Yahweh called Him His Son for all the people to hear.
In Exodus, YHVH came down in a pillar of fire and spoke to all the people the ten commandments. The people knew Moses was their leader because of the plagues. Moses had a long life before he became the leader of Israel. Yeshua started His ministry with a public anointing, which was also different. In the Exodus, YHVH did have to do some big things at times to tell the people to listen to Moses, here we only have the one time.
The last part of the verse is also a sod level prophecy. It’s a prophecy that nobody realized until Shavuot after Yeshua was resurrected. And is now just partially fulfilled. In Acts 2, which we talk about tomorrow, the Ruach did indeed come down directly on the Apostles. And then they had the ability to pass it to others through the laying on of hands. That was very new to the New Testament. Ezekiel 37:14 says that all of Yahweh’s people at the first resurrection will have His Ruach. After Pentecost, we see a foreshadowing of that in this time.
Slide 5 Now when all the people were baptized, Yeshua was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Ruach ha Kodesh descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” (Luk 3:21-22)
The second part of this verse that’s new to the New Testament is the identity of Yeshua as Yahweh’s Son. This is absolutely new to the New Testament and the dividing line for salvation.
Slide 6 “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.” (Isa 42:1)
Yahweh’s Son is alluded to in the Tanakh. Moses prophesies about one like Him being raised up from among the people. Psalm 2 talks directly about the Son. Peter knew the Messiah was the Son of Yahweh apparently from Psalm 2 but it was also revealed to him by Yahweh. They didn’t grasp what this really meant until after He was resurrected, but that Yahweh has a real, literal, Son that came and walked among us is new to the New Testament. And is the most important thing for us to know.
Slide 7 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. (1Jn 5:11-12)
This is the dividing line. And we must have the Son of God to have life. While the Son was alluded to in the Tanakh, it was not known how important He was until He lived, died, was resurrected, and then told us.
Slide 8 Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands— remember that you were at that time separate from Messiah, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Messiah Yeshua you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah. (Eph 2:11-13)
Our being grafted in is new. Without the New Testament, we don’t make any sense at all. Sure, the Tanakh talks about the nations coming to Jerusalem and all nations praising Yahweh, but we are something different than what I see pictured in the Tanakh. What I see there is the period of time that hasn’t come yet, when the millennial kingdom is established and everyone comes to worship. We are called out of seemingly nowhere and grafted into Israel. We become fellow heirs of the promise. We become citizens of the commonwealth of Israel and are used directly by Yahweh to call others. Calling people from the nations, making us holy, and using us to spread the Gospel is new to the New Testament. And we are being called now so that after the resurrection we can be used to fulfill those future prophesies.
Slide 9 For as in Adam all die, so also in Messiah all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Messiah the first fruits, after that those who are Messiah’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. (1Co 15:22-24)
The resurrection being literal and the order of resurrections is new. Ezekiel 37 and 38 read literal to me but I have always known of the resurrection. Some may have thought it to be metaphorical, some clearly didn’t believe in it at all. There are only hints of the afterlife in the Torah, hints that we all see since we all have been raised after Yeshua’s resurrection. The New Testament reveals so much more. 1 Cor 15 is the pattern for the rest of this age. Yeshua was resurrected, next come the saints at his coming – the first resurrection, then comes the second resurrection which is judgment time and the end of this age. Our ability to attain to the better resurrection through the blood of the Messiah is revealed through the New Testament only, and the pattern of there being two resurrections 1000 years apart, is also exclusive to the New Testament.
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, ” ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. (Mat 22:36-38)
Audio only below
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, ” ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. (Mat 22:36-38)
Yeshua is quoting the Shema here. Let me explain this while also explaining how Jews communicated in the first century. The chapters and verses were added over a thousand years after the close of scripture. Having a printed bible prior to Gutenberg’s press was out of reach for almost all people. Starting from the return from Babylon, Jewish culture was founded each on man learning the Torah to the point of memorizing it in synagogue school. The intent of this education was to prevent another captivity. And the way they cited passages was to just quote the leading verse of a passage. Yeshua is not just saying this one sentence is the greatest commandment. He is referencing what is called the Shema, which means “hear”, because that’s the first word of the commandment. “Hear oh Israel, Yahweh is our Elohim, Yahweh is echad. You shall love Yahweh your Elohim with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” The entire text is at Deuteronomy 6: 4-9 but is also the entire chapter.
Many of us have adopted the practice of using the Shema as a daily or twice-daily prayer. As we have realized that Christianity started in the synagogues and was meant to be the next step in the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob instead of a replacement for that faith, we have realized that those who accept Yeshua as the Messiah are expected, even required, to keep the commandments. A great reminder of keeping those commandments is to, well, use them and memorize them, like by memorizing the Shema, using it as a prayer, and also doing what it says!
Did you know there is a little controversy with the text of the Shema that the Messiah cites above? Surprise, surprise, surprise, there’s controversy over something that ought to be black and white. The Hebrew Shema is slightly different than the Shema from the LXX, the Greek translation of the Hebrew bible that was made about 150 years before Yeshua. This was the bible of the synagogues in the first century and the reference of those who wrote the New Testament. I’ll post both and see if you can spot the difference.
Slide 2 “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.” (Deu 6:5-6 NASB Hebrew to English)
“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and all thy strength. And these words, all that I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart and in thy soul.” (Deu 6:5-6 Brenton Hebrew to Greek to English)
Do you see a difference? Beyond the old time English rendering of the Brenton, there is a difference that some see as significant. That difference is the insertion of the word mind instead of heart in the Hebrew rendering. Thinking from the mind is a Greek concept. The Torah almost always uses the heart when it’s talking about where ideas come from. For an example, you can look at Genesis 6:5 where Yahweh wipes out mankind because all the thoughts of men were evil continually. Those thoughts come from the heart in that verse, not from the mind.
From our 21st century perspective, the difference between the heart and the mind is the juxtaposition of emotion versus logic. Greek thinking is heavily logical and linear while Hebrew is more of an eastern philosophy that’s not so black and white, thus thoughts being intertwined with emotions. So how do we reconcile these concepts? Is the commandment based on emotion or is it based on thought and reason?
Slide 3 One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’ “The second is this, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”(Mar 12:28-31)
This incident is recorded in Matthew, Luke, and Mark. And in all three places, Yeshua used both the heart and the mind in his reference of the Shema as the greatest commandment. What do we learn from this? The first is that there’s no way the law has been done away with. Imagine for a moment if that were true. That would mean it would be OK to not love Yahweh. When doctrines are proposed and entertained, we must take them to their logical conclusions. Saying the law is done away with erases the two greatest commandments because they are both from the Torah. Loving your neighbor as yourself is from Leviticus 19:18. When people propose such ludicrous doctrines as the law being done away with, I just don’t think they have thought it through. Because if that’s true, we don’t need to love God or our neighbor. Do you know what that looks like? It looks like now. It looks like violent anarchy. It looks like our news or social media feeds. It looks like the days of Noah and the days of Lot.
But the deeper meaning here is that Yeshua used both mind and heart in his rendering of the Shema. This means both things are true. Loving Yahweh with minds is the logic side of things. The Torah makes sense. The earth was created. Words mean things. Words do not mean other things. Loving Yahweh with our minds is an appeal to our God-given ability to reason. This separates us from the animal kingdom. We have the ability to study and learn anything, but if we love God, we start and finish with His Word, which forms our ability to reason and drives us to make logical decisions that are founded in righteousness. On the other hand, if we emotionally love God will all we’ve got, then we will just do what He says and think about it later. Being so emotionally invested in God enables people to do things that aren’t rational, like change jobs to keep Torah or even become martyrs.
There are a couple practical applications to these concepts. When Satan tempted Eve in the garden, what did he do? He appealed to her emotions. And that nudge drove her over the edge. Had she loved God with all her heart, she would not have loved the fruit more. If she had loved God with all her mind, she would have just not eaten it because God said so. The second example I want to use is the execution of Yeshua. Here we have this wonderful Rabbi that Yahweh works miracles through that nobody has seen before. He harmed nobody. He helped thousands. He knew the Torah better than anyone ever. He was a servant to the extreme. He entered Jerusalem and they cheered and cheered. Just a couple days later, they murdered Him. This makes no sense both from a heart perspective and a mind perspective. They killed the man who could do all those wonderful things and never asked anything in return. That’s illogical to the max. Pontius Pilate was the representative of logic. He said he found no guilt in Him. But they still killed Him. They also showed they did not love Yahweh because of all the commandments they broke to kill Him. They were incited into an emotional rage, where they had the opportunity to be merciful to the innocent, but they chose to murder the innocent and let a guilty man free.
So the explanation is thus: Love Yahweh with your heart and your mind. Love Him so much that it overrides your emotions when needed or your logic when needed. Keep His commandments, speak of them when you lay down and rise up. Teach them to your children. Make them as what you think about, what you love, and what you do. Then you will be following the greatest commandment.
What did the early Christian faith look like, what were their beliefs, and how are we supposed to be worshiping today?
Audio only below
There a point where believers, for whatever reason, get a feeling that mainstream Christianity isn’t quite lining up with scripture and decide to read the bible for themselves from Genesis to Revelation. This is also true of people who have never been believers and decide to do the same thing, just read the Bible. It makes a lot of sense for people to be searching for God and truth today because western society, which is founded heavily on the Christian faith, appears to be on the brink of crumbling. It’s an unfortunate reality that people don’t tend to look for God in good times, but that there are no unbelievers in fox holes (meaning during wartime or hard times people turn to God). For whatever reason a person decides to investigate the faith, they often come to some conclusions that they were not looking for. Many of the key doctrines of mainstream Christianity simply aren’t biblical. I’m not talking about loving your neighbor, being charitable, or any of the basic behaviors, I’m talking about the form of worship. I went down this path over twenty years ago and was astonished to discover the things I was taught to hold dear were derived from non-biblical religions. In fact, they come from religions that the bible condemns and instructs believers to have nothing in common with. When I learned of the pagan origins of mainstream Christian practices, I had to make a choice. The big sin Israel was smote for, repeatedly, was worshiping false gods or blending the true worship with false god worship. Once this happens to a person, that person realizes they must change. In many cases, mine included, we start chopping the false, pagan stuff out of our lives because the Bible commands this over and over. So we chop. And we chop.
At some point, though, we need to find the way to worship. Getting rid of paganism and huge doctrinal errors is great, but can leave one with, well, nothing. I had to learn what the early church really looked like and what practices they had for worship so we could add back in after we cleared the deck of the pagan stuff. That’s the beginning of this ministry. What did First Century Christianity look like and how did they worship? The answers are shocking to mainstream Christians, but pretty easy to realize once you think about it. In fact, if you’ve been in church or read the New Testament at all, once you see how they worshiped, you’ll realize you knew it all along. Just by simply reading the bible the picture becomes clear and easy to see. Over these past 20 some odd years, the picture that became clear to me in the beginning is even clearer now that I know a lot more of the details. So I’m sharing with the world.
Theologically, we are in the same place today as the world was after the fall of the second temple. This would be 70 AD. Follow with me now, this will make sense. Christianity departed from the faith once delivered starting at the end of the first century and into the second. This is when the pagan stuff started to be mixed in. In the 4th century, the corrupted Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire. That gave birth to the Catholic church which had a split with the eastern church, then we had the reformation which has resulted in a lot of strange beliefs. All that said, though, we are effectively in the same place with respect to the faith once delivered to the saints as the first century believers after the temple fell. Sure, world history has progressed, kingdoms have risen and fallen, great things have been invented, and awful things have occurred, but there hasn’t been a significant progression in the faith once delivered since the close of scripture, aside from billions of people learning some form of Christianity. The next stop in the plan of salvation is the return of the Messiah, which is exactly where the first century Christians were. So what I am trying to say is that our faith and worship should look as much like it did when the knowledge of the Messiah went forth from Zion. The time period we need to focus on for how to worship and believe is recorded in the New Testament, mostly between Yeshua’s ascension and the close of scripture. We do not have any scripture written after the fall of the temple, as the oldest New Testament books or letters were written in the 60s AD and the temple came down in 70 AD.
Acts 2 is where we see an enormous change. The New Testament contains quite a bit of progression on the path of salvation, meaning explaining the past, fulfilling significant prophecy, and showing us hints at what is to come. Acts 2 is where I want to start the focus of this message. Mainstream Christianity absolutely recognizes Pentecost Sunday as a huge event but misses a lot of stuff that’s going on there. First is they don’t realize that the Day of Pentecost is actually an ancient holiday. They think the apostles were randomly together the day they got the Holy Spirit and that the day was then called Pentecost. But there’s a lot more than meets the eye here because the day of Pentecost is from the Torah. It’s a commanded Sabbath from Leviticus 23. The apostles were together on the day of Pentecost because they were still keeping the Torah. This is hard to fathom if Yeshua had told them the law was done away with after Yahweh resurrected Him.
Slide 2 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. [Luk 24:27 NASB95]
Brothers and sisters, this is a significant verse. And, yes, I may overuse the word “significant” and its synonyms today because I’m talking about the easy to see verses that have caused hundreds of thousands of us to change to a biblical form of worship away from how we were taught in mainstream Christianity. After the resurrection, the Messiah, the Son of God, explained everything beginning with Moses and all the prophets. In order for us to understand the Messiah and the New Testament scriptures, we have to understand Moses and the prophets. I know I’m repeating myself, but it’s absurd to say the law was done away with at the cross when the law defines the Messiah and identifies Yeshua as that Messiah.
So understand they were still keeping the Torah by having a holy convocation, aka church, on the day of Pentecost after Yeshua explained everything to them. This means he did NOT tell them to stop keeping Torah! Pentecost which is also known as Shavuot (both meaning count 50, one from Greek, the other from Hebrew) is a day from Torah that is exactly 50 days from the offering of first fruits. Yeshua was resurrected as the first fruits of the dead as Paul wrote in 1 Cor 15:20, which means He was resurrected on that annual observance. Exactly fifty days later is another holy day where the priests would offer leavened bread as the first fruit offering and the nation would have a sabbath. This is a big piece of information that mainstream Christianity misses, and even teaches against. The holy days of Leviticus 23 are prophetic, they continued to be kept by the early church, they show a fulfillment of some prophecy, and allude to more to come. These days are very often dismissed as meaningless rituals, which is blasphemy, but they have deeper meanings including prophetic meanings. They aren’t just days to observe, but they show us the pattern for the plan of salvation. And the first Christians, who were Jews, and those who converted, kept these days the rest of their lives. In fact, we have evidence from the church councils that Christians continued to keep the Sabbath and the Holy Days for hundreds of years after the close of scripture, stopping only by force and law.
Let’s get to Acts 2 because it gets even better. There is so much there that we miss because mainstream Christianity is conditioned to look at scripture with the wrong foundation. So let me show you a bit more:
Slide 3 And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs–we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” [Act 2:6-11 NASB95]
Folks normally look at Acts 2 to focus on the Spirit coming down and the miracle of speaking in tongues. Well, the miracle is really hearing in tongues here, but why are all these people there? Have you ever wondered? Were these international believers in the God of Abraham just randomly present at that moment in time? No! They were there because Pentecost is an ancient pilgrimage festival from the Torah. There are three holy days in Leviticus 23 which are pilgrimage festivals. Passover, Shavuot (Pentecost), and Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles). The nation of Israel was meant to stay within its borders and go to the tent of meeting or the temple three times a year. The Jews were scattered after the first destruction of Israel/Judea. Nehemiah and Ezra returned, but many stayed wherever they were in the world. The synagogue system began around the time of the rebuilding of the temple, which is referred to as the second temple era. The Pentecost in Acts 2 is roughly 500 years after the synagogue system began, which is where Jews and proselytes all over the world were worshiping and learning. These people would then make Aliyah, i.e., pilgrimage, to Jerusalem during their lives.
Every single person present when Peter and the apostles received the Holy Spirit were there on purpose. Because Yahweh wanted them there. And He wanted them to witness the miracle and then hear it in their own languages so they could take that information back to their home synagogues and spread the word. The gospel went forth from Zion in Acts 2 through active Jewish believers returning to their homes.
Slide 4 “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. But beware of men, for they will hand you over to [the] courts and scourge you in their synagogues; and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.” [Mat 10:16-18 NASB95]
Brothers and sisters, we’re taught that the law was done away with and that Christianity is some new religion that breaks from the Old Testament, but that’s hogwash. The Messiah told the apostles they would be scourged in the synagogues during His ministry. He told them to go to the synagogues to spread the news of His first coming. See, these are easy to see scriptures that you already knew!
Slide 5 And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying. There were in all about twelve men. And he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. [Act 19:6-8 NASB95]
Those synagogues were all over the known world, so that people who knew the Old Testament and knew to expect the Messiah would be prime to hear the gospel and understand it. Having their own faithful return from Jerusalem to tell them of the Messiah and of the miracles of Acts 2 is how Yahweh spread the knowledge of the Messiah to the known world. I wonder how many of those who returned to their homes were baptized and then baptized others? For curiosity, do a search on the word synagogue in the book of Acts in your electronic bibles and see how often Paul was in one preaching about Yeshua. It’s pretty often! In this case, he preached for three entire months!
Slide 6 And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear [them] in our own language to which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs–we hear them in our [own] tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” [Act 2:6-11 NASB95]
I’ve put Acts 2:6-11 back on the screen. A big change in mindset from what almost all Christians are taught is that the first converts were almost exclusively Jews who attended synagogues all over the known world. We’re talking about ten years of time before the gentiles start converting in significant numbers. When it is written that thousands were baptized in a day early in Acts, they were Jews and those converting to Judaism. These Jews and proselytes stayed Jews the rest of their lives. The difference was that they accepted Yeshua as the Messiah and were baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. In the New Testament, the term Jew refers to anybody who followed Torah and were from any of the tribes or converts. Something to keep in mind when studying is that language is not static, meaning words can change over time. Those who kept Torah after the temple was rebuilt gradually became known as Jews all over the earth. The book of 2 Maccabees, an apocryphal book written to tell Jews how Judea purged the Greeks from its land, uses the word in that context as does the entire New Testament.
Slide 7 “Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood. For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.” [Act 15:19-21 NASB95]
How often have we read this and just thought the four things were kind of random and all that the gentile converts would ever have to do? I know that’s what I used to think. And then I studied Torah and discovered all four of those instructions are from the book of Leviticus. Yes, deep within the Torah.
Leviticus 17: 12 prohibits eating blood. Leviticus 17:15 prohibits eating things that that just die, which added with verse 12 would cover everything that died without being bled (strangled), Lev 18 defines fornication, Lev 19 and others talk about idolatry. The apostles are telling the gentiles that are converting that they must start by obeying a few Torah principles. But the next line is the one I like to focus on. Moses is read in the synagogue on Shabbat. Why is that line there? Because the gentile converts are keeping the Sabbath and going to the synagogues all over the world. They were hearing about Yeshua and either were already attending synagogue or they were starting, where they would hear the Torah read each week and then learn to follow the commandments! The Jews had a huge problem with in influx of gentiles in their synagogues, which is the crux of the problem for the Jerusalem council. What to do with all those gentiles keeping Shabbat? This letter didn’t make the gentiles convert because they would hear Torah, learn in the synagogue, and then make that decision later, if at all.
Slide 8 5 “For we have found this man a real pest and a fellow who stirs up dissension among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. … 14 “But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets; [Act 24:5, 14 NASB95]
If Christianity broke off from Judaism to become a new religion at Acts 2, or anywhere in the New Testament, why would the Jews care what Paul did decades later with the Gentiles? My friends, as strange as this may sound, Christianity started in the synagogues and stayed there a long time. Paul was a pest to Jews throughout the world because The Way, or the sect of the Nazarenes, was considered a sect of the Jews. The book of Acts was written in the 60s AD, somewhere around 30 years after the ascension of Yeshua. Our faith was still considered part of the Jews to both the Jews and the Romans! Paul still believed everything in accordance with the law and the prophets. So what does this mean for us? The recipe is clear and on the screen. We follow the law and the prophets and the new testament.
Slide 9 So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Yeshua. [Rev 12:17 NASB95]
The rest of her children are those who keep Yahweh’s commandments while also holding to Yeshua’s testimony. This is the same message that we see throughout the New Testament and Paul’s missionary work. To worship and believe as the first century Christians, we are to keep the Sabbath, study Moses, avoid the four things in Acts 15, but then as we study Moses we start changing. We keep the Holy Days of Leviticus 23. We stop eating unclean food and adopt Yahweh’s diet from Leviticus 11. We cease any forms of worship or beliefs that come from paganism. Sunday, Easter, Christmas, the Trinity, praying to dead people, any form of astrology, anything connected to idolatry has to go. And we copy Yeshua in his application and teachings on the Torah. We need to be loving and patient, trying to help everyone we can come to the knowledge of the truth.
For more messages on early Christianity, please visit firstcenturychristianity.net. Thanks so much for listening and may Yahweh bless you and keep you, in the Name of His Son, Yeshua.
Spreading the bad news.
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When and how you worship identifies which God you serve.
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Audio only from Spotify below.
When and how you worship identifies which God you serve.
When we think of the first three commandments we almost always think about false gods being idols. But what if worshiping false gods didn’t just involve what your worship but when? Unfortunately, most of Christianity worships a false god and breaks the first three commandments without even knowing it. But please bear with me because if you really want to be a part of the family of the true God Yahweh, when you worship is the actual sign. It’s about behavior as well as idols.
I spend a lot of time pitching the positive side of keeping Torah. You know, the benefits of following the entire bible and how the whole faith, from Genesis to Revelation, makes sense. This is in the vein of the Shema, which Yeshua said is the greatest commandment -to love YHVH your Elohim, the LORD your God, with all your heart, you soul, and your might. If you love YHVH, you will do what He says. And when you do what He says, the bible and our ultimate destiny become much easier to understand. But there’s a flip side to this walk:
Slide 2 Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. (1Pe 2:17)
Slide 2 The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil. (Ecc 12:13-14)
The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The list goes on and on. And it’s hard to bring this side of the faith up because we are all sinners. But we must be moving in a positive direction, towards Yahweh, and sometimes the consequences of our actions need to be addressed to bring about the necessary change. Yeshua said the greatest commandment is to love Yahweh with all your heart and second is to love your neighbor as yourself. Loving Yahweh with all our hearts is displayed by simply doing what he said to do and not doing what He said not to do. Obedience and emulation are the best forms of worship. The second greatest commandment is to love our neighbors as ourselves. If you saw your neighbor doing something that could hurt them, you are obliged to warn them if you love them.
So why is it so important for us to worship on the right day of the week?
Slide 3 YHVH spoke to Moses, saying, “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am YHVH who sanctifies you. ‘Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. ‘For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to YHVH; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death. ‘So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.’ It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days YHVH made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.” When He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God. (Exo 31:12-18)
One of the biggest signs of God’s people, if not the biggest, is when and how we worship. One objection to this is that we’re not the sons of Israel so it doesn’t apply. Au contraire, my friends. Those who accept Yeshua as the Messiah and are baptized become adopted children of Abraham and heirs according to the promise. The NC was made with Israel and Judah. The path to salvation is inextricably tied to being part of the family of God. If you worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He has told us how to do this. And the 7th day Sabbath is a chief way of doing this.
Also in the passage above it says “sabbaths” in the plural. Leviticus 23 defines all of Yahweh’s sabbaths. The weekly being at the top and then we have annual observances, most of which are also sabbaths. I’ve spoken in detail in the past how these observances identify Yahweh’s people. The few times that Israel did what they were supposed to do by following Torah, one could imagine watching the nation from a helicopter view. Every Friday and sunset all motion would stop. All the kids would be in their houses, the streets empty and everything peaceful. On Saturday, you’d see people congregating to have their fellowships on Shabbat. In the days of synagogues, you would see people literally going to church on Shabbat. Then they’d go home and at sunset, you’d see some activity, but for the rest of the week you’d see normal hustle and bustle. Commerce, ranching, farming, and the like. Then on the annual sabbaths, you’d see the entire nation just come to a stop just like on the weekly sabbath. How is this a sign? Because it’s a culture. All the surrounding nations would know how to identify the Israelites by what days they observed. This is the true faith, not one of crosses or statues, but one of routine observances. Our behavior defines which God we serve.
Having a sign and a means to identify oneself as a believer is important. The flip side of having a sign is that it gives the adversary an avenue for attack.
Slide 4 ‘As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings. ‘He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. (Dan 7:24-25)
Satan wants to be worshiped. That also means he doesn’t want us worshiping Yahweh. In fact, Satan wants to actually be the ruler of the universe. So his playbook is to change the Torah, hence the change in times and law. The Torah establishes time in the book of Genesis. An evening and a morning is a day. The seventh day of creation, which is the seventh day each week, is the Sabbath. It’s the day Yahweh rested from His works and then we follow His example by doing the same. Remember, the fourth commandment even references the creation.
The cold reality of the situation is that the switch from Sabbath to Sunday isn’t just some switch in when to meet up for church, it’s a switch in gods. Friday sunset to Saturday sunset is the mark of Yahweh. So what god is served by keeping Sunday? You’ve go it, a sun god.
Pagan religions from antiquity worship the sun, s-u-n, the helium plasma ball at the center of our solar system. People, either ignorant of Yahweh or being influenced by Satan, realized that life and light go hand in hand. The sun brings warmth and plants grow when we have sunlight and warmth. When the sun went away, which we now know it stays still and earth’s tilted orbit makes it seem like it is moving when it’s us, it got cold and things died. When it “came back”, it got warm and things came back to life. So people decided that sun, s-u-n, was a god, the giver of life. Then they added in the planets and all sorts of other things to worship, which is idolatry. Over time, these other things got days and observances because it’s hard wired into mankind to want to have religious observances. Deis solis is the day of the sun and is Sunday on our calendars. The false gods had observance times because they are copies of the true God’s worship system.
When Christianity went forth from Zion, it started in the synagogues with Jews who accepted Yeshua as the Messiah. This continued for a long time. When gentiles began to convert, they joined with the Jews at synagogue. They gave up their pagan practices and adopted the worship of the True God, Yahweh, through His Son, Yeshua. This is why the council of Jerusalem, recorded in Acts 15, includes “for Moses is read in the synagogues every Sabbath”. The converts had already stopped worshiping on the false days, were attending synagogue on Shabbat, and were expected to keep doing that to hear Moses, i.e., the Torah, every week and learn the ways of Yahweh. So understand, that first century faith was one of people accepting Yeshua as Messiah, Jesus as the Christ, and then breaking with their pagan ways. They stopped worshiping false gods and switched to the true and did it by changing when and how they worshiped.
Unfortunately, Christianity grew apart from the synagogue and keeping the Torah as it moved west. Over time it became acceptable to blend the pagan practices into Christianity. This culminated in councils of bishops who had come to loathe Jews and the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Christianity grew into somewhat of a new religion, being an amalgamation of NT scripture, some OT scripture, legends, myths, and the observances of pagan religions. Sunday, Christmas, and Easter are all pagan celebrations that were brought into Christianity and ultimately subverted it. We have evidence of this in the councils of Nicea and Laodicea, where at the council of Laodicea they were forbidding keeping the Sabbath and mandating people read the Gospels on that same day. This is because, in AD 364, Christians were still reading Torah on Shabbat as the disciples expected them to do in Acts 15. Council of Laodicea – 364 AD – The Sabbath Sentinel
It’s remarkable to not that the same sin which got Israel smote repeatedly, mixing in false god worship with the true (syncretism), has become the foundation for Christianity. Most of the world’s Christians think that Sunday is the Sabbath and that we’re supposed to observe Christmas and Easter. All three of these things actually give homage to false gods and we really need to not do them. If you want the brutal truth about Christmas, please check out my post Are You Worshiping False Gods? – First Century Christianity where you can hear perhaps the most famous minister of our time admit live on TV that Christmas and all its observances are 100% pagan.
Brothers and sisters, if you’re hearing this info for the first time, it’s time to make a change. The change is hard. Yeshua said plainly that He didn’t come to bring peace but a sword. It was not a literal sword, but a sharp division between doing what is right and following Him and His Father versus going the other way. When I learned this information, I spent a ton of time trying to disprove it. But I had to come to the reality that Friday sunset to Saturday set is the Sabbath, the real 4th commandment. And keeping any other day like that is honoring a false god while cheating on the True God. How and when we worship matters.